Delhi court delays verdict on youngest gang rape suspect

Delhi court delays verdict on youngest gang rape suspect

Indian policemen in plain clothes escort the juvenile accused in the New Delhi gang rape case as he leaves the Juvenile Justice Board building in New Delhi on July 11, 2013.

The youngest of the accused in the Delhi gang rape case will have to wait another two weeks for a verdict from India's Juvenile Justice Board.

The 17-year-old was alleged to have joined five men in the assault and rape on a bus of a 23-year-old paramedical student, who later died of her injuries.

The Dec. 16 attack made headlines around the world and stoked outrage in India. Delhi has since passed a law toughening sentences for adults convicted of sex crimes.

The Associated Press cited the teenager's lawyer, Rajesh Tiwari, as saying Thursday that his client would learn his fate on July 25.

Four adult defendants are being tried in a special fast-track court in New Delhi, where they face the death penalty. The sixth accused was found dead in his jail cell in March.

As a minor, the youngest suspect can be sent to a correctional facility for a maximum three-year term, Al Jazeera wrote.

According to The New York Times, the juvenile court heard that the accused boy — now 18 — had moved from a village in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh to Delhi at the age of 11 and worked in lowly jobs since.

He was a helper on the privately operated bus that "Nirbhaya" — the name given to the victim by the Indian press to hide her identity — and her male friend boarded after watching the movie "Life of Pi" at a south Delhi theater.

All the accused, including the bus driver, had allegedly been drinking when they picked up Nirbhaya and her friend. They then drove onto the city's outer ring road and allegedly proceeded to rape Nirbhaya and beat her companion, before dumping them by the roadside.